Something to watch for: We’ve seen remarkably few stolen bases this postseason. The Dodgers and Brewers (who led the NL in steals in the regular season, averaging just about one per game) have yet to swipe a single bag this October. Amongst all teams (even the eliminated clubs) we’re averaging 0.28 stolen bases per team game. Last year in the postseason, that was 0.72 stolen bases per team per game.

We’re probably still dealing with too small a sample size to know if it’s a significant strategic departure from the regular season. The 2025 regular season did end up being the lowest and least successful in terms of base thievery since the rule changes that made running more accessible, but that still worked out to almost 1,000 more stolen bases than before the year before the rule changes and a slightly elevated success rate.

The success rate this postseason (70%) is lower than it was in the regular season (77.6%), too. But that’s largely because of the Cubs, who have one successful steal in four attempts 😬. –HK

Yankees-Blue Jays

Blue Jays eliminate Yankees, 3-1

⚾ Barry Bonds never won a World Series. The best hitter of all-time reached the postseason seven times, including four Championship Series and one World Series loss in 2002. He posted a .245/.433/.503 line across those 48 games, and in his one Fall Classic, Bonds ripped off a .471/.700/1.294 effort with four homers and seven intentional walks.

Aaron Judge has now played in eight postseasons. His teams have also reached four Championship Series and one World Series, though in the age of bigger playoff fields, they have won nine series to make it happen, where Bonds only experienced two October triumphs.

Still, eight postseasons and eight series losses means Judge is being judged detail by detail, nitpick by nitpick until he has a ring to quiet them all. Judge’s career postseason stat line isn’t quite Bonds — .236/.346/.476 in 65 games — but against the Blue Jays he staged a similarly valiant losing effort to Bonds’ World Series. He stuck New York’s biggest (only?) blow with his Game 3 homer, yes.

He also batted .500 and drove in seven, seemingly smoking screaming line drives every at-bat, while his teammates’ bats went cold. Of the Yankees’ nine most frequent batters in the series, no one else hit better than Ryan McMahon (.286 with a homer in just 15 plate appearances) and behind him it gets bleak. Of the eight batters with at least 20 plate appearances, the next most effective behind Judge was Ben Rice, who put up a .222/.286/.444 line pulled near average by one homer.

In the final stages of Game 4 Wednesday night, broadcasters Joe Davis and John Smoltz felt compelled to defend Judge, or at least remind viewers that he had been good, that he was not to blame for the Yankees’ 16th straight failed (aka non-World Series-winning) season. That he had homered to keep the series alive. That he was and will be a barely mortal terror every time he steps into the batter’s box. As if they needed reminding. But maybe they do. The NBA and NFL’s ring culture sometimes bleed into the baseball sphere, even though the sport simply does not align with its individual star mandate and never has. This is a sport where Ernie Clement or Pete Kozma or David Eckstein can and do show up at key moments and thrive. It doesn’t make Judge’s otherworldly excellence less impressive. It just means you have to understand it for what it is.

It would be satisfying to see Judge match up the peak of his powers with a team triumph, but it’s not a prerequisite to appreciating what he’s doing. He won’t be this forever. I’d be sure to enjoy what you can in the moment, regardless of the final score. –ZC

⚾ You get the sense the Blue Jays just don’t like the Yankees. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s distaste for the pinstripes has been out there for a while, but he earned new bragging rights with a blistering ALDS performance — batting .529 with 3 homers and 9 RBIs — and immediately teamed up with ultimate Yankees antagonist David Ortiz on the postgame show.